Public safety and emergency personnel use portable communication devices (e.g., two-way radios, cellular telephones, and tablet computers) as well as devices with similar functionality that are mounted in public safety vehicles. Such vehicle-mounted devices are often referred to as “mobile devices.” Multiple mobile devices may be controlled through a vehicle control head (e.g., a vehicle computer having or coupled to a display and other user interface components). The vehicle control head provides one shared mechanism to control a large array of communications and other electronic equipment on the vehicle. The vehicle control head and the portable communication devices are equipped with short-range wireless communications (e.g., Bluetooth) to enable the vehicle control head to wirelessly communication with and, ultimately, control and operate the portable communications devices. However, current short-range wireless communication technologies cannot differentiate between a portable communication device that is in the vehicle, and one that is merely near the vehicle. This can lead to the vehicle control head taking control of the portable communication device when the user of the device does not have physical access to the vehicle control head. Manual transfer of control from the portable communication device to the vehicle control head is cumbersome because public safety personnel may frequently and/or quickly enter and exit a vehicle during mission critical operations, and may not have time to safely manually transfer control.
Accordingly, there is a need for systems and methods to transfer operations between mobile and portable devices.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.
The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.